The Athletics defeated the Rangers 4-2 this afternoon to move into a flat-footed tie in the AL West, but they might be without their hottest hitter when the series continues on Tuesday.

According to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, Coco Crisp left today’s game due to a right shin contusion. The injury occurred when he fouled a ball off his leg during an at-bat in the bottom of the sixth inning. The 33-year-old finished the at-bat and eventually struck out, but walked gingerly back to the dugout and didn’t return to play the field to begin the seventh inning. The severity of the issue isn’t yet known, as Athletics manager Bob Melvin told Slusser that he’ll be reevaluated when he gets to the ballpark tomorrow.

Crisp has been out of his mind recently, going deep seven times in his last 11 games. He homered in his third straight game today, giving him a career-high 17 home runs for the year.

Yesterday the Mets announced that lefty Jason Vargas sustained a non-displaced fracture of the hamate bone in his right hand as the result of a comebacker during a spring training start. This morning they announced that Vargas will have surgery, which should cause him to miss the first week or so of the season.

Vargas will have the surgery tomorrow. Given that it’s on his non-throwing hand, he won’t miss much time — just a week or so of action, with another few days to get back up to speed afterward. He actually threw a bullpen session this morning. The issue is that he can’t catch a ball right now.

Vargas, 35, signed a two-year, $16 million pact with the Mets last month. With him missing a couple of starts, the Mets should break camp with both Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler in the rotation. The two had been fighting for the final spot.